Psychopolitik 2.0

Radley Balko had a column up on FoxNews’ website about the election yesterday, calling for anti-incumbent voting.  Apparently Murdochs underlings thought it needed a generous dose of salt, because they edited it to sound like he was preaching to the choir.  Nope, can’t have average americans considering checks on power, that’s crazy talk…

CNN is saying Rumsfeld resigned. Finally…

***edit: It’s official.  He’s being replaced by some guy that was head of the CIA under Bush the First (he really likes raiding daddy’s entourage, huh?)

*Yawn*…

In the climax to a trial that began more than a year ago, a combative Hussein and two other defendants Sunday were sentenced to death by hanging for a brutal crackdown in 1982 in the Shiite town of Dujail.

Guilty verdict, death sentence. Shiites happy…

[G]leeful Iraqis took to the streets in celebration in predominantly Shiite areas, including Baghdad’s Sadr City neighborhood, southern towns in Wasit province, and the southern city of Najaf.

Some carried pictures of Muqtada al Sadr’s grandfather — a cleric who was murdered by Hussein in the ’80s — and shot their guns in the air in celebration.  Witnesses said people shouted “the killer deserves to be killed” and set pictures of Hussein on fire.

Sunnis pissed…

The Interior Ministry closed two Sunni satellite TV stations accused of inciting sectarian violence, a ministry official told CNN.  Iraqi police and soldiers ordered the employees of First Channel [Zawra] and Salaheddin TV to leave their offices in Tikrit, Hussein’s hometown.

That is where as many as 2,000 people protested Sunday’s verdict and sentence against the former Iraqi leader, defying the government’s curfew.  Earlier in the day, a witness said the protesters in Tikrit carried posters of the former president and were shooting into the air. The numbers of demonstrators grew after the sentence was announced.

Big whoop, as if any other outcome were possible.  What’s interesting is the range of stupid responses by outsiders.  For example:

White House spokesman Tony Snow praised the Dujail trial verdict, including Hussein’s sentence of death by hanging for crimes against humanity.  “It demonstrates that you’ve got an independent Iraqi judiciary and that they were applying their own laws,” Snow said. (emphasis mine)

Theres two possible ways to interpret the word “independant” in this, both of which render his comment as nonsense:

If he’s saying it proves they’re not held subordinate to the rest of the iraqi government, then he’d have to explain how to tell the difference: these laws that they operate under have only recently even been written, and considering how the trial descended into circus territory it looks like they said “eh, let’s just wing it”.  Besides, with the depth of resentment there, who’s to say that if they’d decided otherwise the iraqi prime minister wouldn’t have thrown a fit?

On the other hand, if he means “see?  The US isn’t puppeteering this government”, then he’s asserting that a decision that amounts to the best news for Bush out of Iraq in a long time proves that the iraqi government doesn’t concern itself with what the US thinks.  Not to say that I think they do — al-Maliki already proved that he didn’t — but in no way can staying in line with Bush administration goals prove independance.  What would REALLY prove that would’ve been if they did something that threw yet more dirt in his face — like, say, acquital.  That wasn’t going to happen, so there’s nothing to point at either way.

Speaking of not caring what outsiders think…

Many European nations praised the guilty verdict, although some took exception to capital punishment, which has been abolished by nearly all European nations. […]

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said, “This decision belongs to the Iraqi people. In the climate of violence Iraq is going through, I hope this decision will not bring any new tension and that Iraqis from all sides will act accordingly.”

However, he noted that France and the European Union “have always supported” the “universal ban” of the death penalty.

“We need, along with our European partners, to make Baghdad authorities aware of our position.”

Oh, they’re aware of your position.  They’re just exercizing their sovereign power of Don’t-Give-A-Fuck.

Considering Europe’s past in the region, they’re about as inclined to listen to you as I am to listen to a vegetarian complain about me eating a philly steak sammich.  Save your breath.

In-ter-rest-ing…

The Rev. Ted Haggard admitted Friday he bought methamphetamine and received a massage from a gay prostitute who claims he was paid for drug-fueled trysts by the former head of the National Association of Evangelicals.

Mike Jones, the 49-year-old Denver man who raised the allegations this week, quickly refuted Haggard’s denial.

Shortly after Haggard told reporters outside his home, “I bought it for myself but never used it. I was tempted, but I never used it,” Jones told MSNBC-TV’s Rita Cosby that Haggard snorted meth in front of him about once a month for two years.

First, a short note: Personally I don’t think either thing he is being accused of doing should be illegal, but he himself doesn’t feel that way, so I have no qualms about assuming the hypocrisy here. Besides, his latest talk about it sounds to me like if a jewel thief said upon capture “honest, officer! I found the diamonds in a bag in the lake!”.

That out of the way, the structure of Ted’s admission says a lot about the mindset of political christianity. His aversion to homosexuality is so strong that he sees admitting to having bought meth as easier than admitting to gay sex, despite the possible criminal penalty for buying meth being (AFAIK) worse on average than solicitation. This tottering towards becoming a legal problem (the police are making the preliminary steps towards investigating, contacting people involved), his overriding fear is still the shattering of his social image as anti-gay, rather than “gee, I might get locked up if they find anything”.

Sad, in a bad-SNL-skit way…

Dems’ll get the Senate, probably not the house.
Why? Simple: you can’t gerrymander a senate seat…

***Edit: wow was I wrong. As much as those house districts were manipulated, for such a blowout to happen some of the wingnuts had to have skipped the vote or even crossed over to Dems.

Does stuff like this give anyone else out there a case of the Huhs, or is it just me?

A drug cocktail that backers say is the first effective treatment for methamphetamine and cocaine addiction is dividing substance abuse experts into two hostile camps — those who say they have seen it work wonders and those who say it has been rushed to market without any scientific testing.

The strident debate over the “Prometa protocol,” manufactured by the Hythiam Corp., is complicated by the checkered Wall Street career of the company’s CEO, Terren Peizer, who previously championed an anti-AIDS drug that has yet to make it to market.

Hythiam, which is based in Los Angeles, launched Prometa in 2003 in private clinics, where meth and cocaine addicts, as well as alcohol abusers, pay $12,000 to $15,000 for a one-month outpatient treatment.  Now the company is aggressively pushing Prometa for the mass market, and asking governments and insurers to foot the bill. […]

Watching TV, an’ saw 4 campaign ads — for two statewide offices (yes, two of the ads were both “major” party opponents) — in 3 minutes. All attack ads. Ugh….

I got a question for whoever does these ads: why is every position no matter how obscure portrayed as if the purpose of the office is to personally save your ass? If I see one more ad for agricultural commissioner insinuating that if not for them all my food would be poisoned…well, let’s just say there’d be some unexplained fires.

***update: scratch that, 5 more just got played in a row…***

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